Wonky, Pinchwork, and quite surprising

I'm going to try and be as unbiased on this piece as possible, but I may wavery between hyper critical, and overly lovey dove-y with this piece.  This piece I actually made the form of on my very first day of ceramics class, but actually makes a decent chawan.  It is pinch-work with a coil foot. Sadly its quite wonky even for a pinchwork piece, due in part to the clay still being quite wet and weak when I attached the foot, so one side of the bowl is drooping.
 


The glazing of this piece was a huge lesson in how unpredictable glazing can be.  I call this Chawan my Painted teabowl, because the effect is it looks almost painted ( not in any particular design, but just painted, with earthy colors).  I had actually imagined a far more edgy piece, that had huge contrast, between white, black and dark green.  But as I am sure the experienced potters (if there are any) that read this blog, will subtly laugh at my intent while reading this, but for the most part I was treating glazing more like painting as in, whats on top is what will be seen.  I by no means considered that yes this when it is fired melts substantially then hardens again into basically a glass on the surface of the piece.

So the glazing of this piece, as I wanted that very bright white background, and looking at the test tiles, one coat did not look as white as I wished.  So I did two dips into the white glaze, then took a calligraphy brush, and did subtle brush strokes of Tenmoku on opposite sides, and Oribe on the other two sides.  Tenmoku of course being a black glaze, and Oribe being a dark vibrant green.  Well I can understand what the Tenmoku did, as I only did a single brush stroke, and brushing glaze onto a piece does not apply it incredibly thick, and tenmoku when applied thin tends to be a browner glaze.  The Oribe though still throws me for a loop, somehow the thin layer combining with the white glaze turned purple, but even more so developed a texture different from the rest of the piece.



This piece actually handled its first bowl of matcha surprisingly well.  While it will by no means become a regular teabowl that I use, in part because the drooping around the outside of the foot, caused a rim around the outside of the piece in which the liquid settles, and is actually somewhat hard to completely drain from the piece.

All in all I think it's a great first usable piece made by me.  While it is far from the look I was going for, it developed a rather rustic look, with a color palate similar to some pottery I have seen from the western United States, mainly in the Rocky Mountain, or Southwest region.

"Museum" Collection

So while I run the site The Hagi Project, which catalogs my ceramics collection of Asian influence. I have long since thought about creating a collection of pieces which I would not use, and when I have the means, display it in an interesting fashion in a noticeable location. This has lead to me doing quite a bit of window shopping through many galleries trying to decide what may be collection worthy for my "Museum Gallery."

It has lead me to realize that there are no hidden deals in Japanese Ceramics, and especially by the means available to someone who probably will not travel to Japan for some time. So that being said I recently acquired two pieces that upon open I was so incredibly taken with them that I thought of starting a museum collection with these two pieces.

This post is a bit of a musing on why I am not sure either piece will be put into such a collection, after staring at the pieces for quite some time in spare time or when I needed a bit of a break in my studies. I will say that I find ceramics so incredibly calming, and wonderful to admire that they often make for a great 5-10 minute study break to examine the pieces.

First off is a Hagi Guinomi, bought under the initial impression of using it for Gyokuro. It is a Straw Ash Glaze ( Shira), and even though I've held the piece in person, it was not until a lot of people looked at the photo and commented on blue, only to have me try and explain reasons why it appears blue such as a sunny day with nice blue sky, a blue curtain located near by, and I do not know if it was power of suggestion, or if it has some special character that really makes it look blue in slightly diffused lighting. I am thinking of trying to create a Light box to take pictures at a closer to Studio Quality.

Upon its arrival I was incredibly taken with this piece, but the more and more it dawned on me, there is a very specific reason why that side of the cup is facing forward in the photo. While the rest of the cup is by no means bad in terms of glaze effects, I would have to the other three quarters of this piece has glazing which is just average in terms of appearance and effects for the artist Deishi Shibuya. But this quarter of the piece, it is exceptional the play between the brown clay body and its incredibly rough texture in stark contrast to smooth but lumpy white glaze, in a nearly random pattern gives a truly wonderful effect on the piece.

So the more I thought about it the more I realized that should I create such a collection after a few years of acquiring pieces whether they be for use or such a "museum collection" eventually I would arrive at the realization that this piece is not that special, as 1/4 is a far way from completely, though I will say that the shape and clay work to make the body are also good to great, maybe not exceptional but certainly above average compared to the other pieces of his that I have.

This piece is incredibly stunning, and it is the first time I have ever seen such an oilspot effect based on a white glaze. This piece was acquired for use with Chinese Teas, though it is actually a Sakazuki which is a flatter shaped cup for drinking Sake.

This one I am still slightly in the air about but my current reservations revolve around the fact that while this is a stunning glaze, and wonderfully formed ( seemingly almost to perfection) with actually a wonderfully tactile clay body, I realized that every time I pick up this Sakazuki to examine, I spend less than a minute examining the clay exposed in the foot, and basically the rest of the time staring into the bowl of the cup. Which while it is a stunning glaze runs into the problem of actually becoming boring after less than 5 minutes of looking it over, and seemingly shorter and shorter times subsequently.

For example look over this picture and while it is stunning at a glance, you will realize you tire of it somewhat quickly.

And the glaze on the outside of the sakazuki is a standard white glaze that I have had little motivation to study again after the first two or three times looking over the piece.

The more I think about it, especially after writing this up, I am almost certain I will put it into use, and therefore not have it be part of a theoretical "museum collection."

Favorite piece of teaware

This is a post taken from my Tea Blog The Sip Tip for a Tea Blog Carnival post. I feel the discussion I went through in this post really fits in with the purpose of this blog.

"What is your favorite piece of teaware and why?"

A rather unsatisfactory answer, but rather true is, the latest Teaware acquired. As it is newest thing in your collection you are enamored with it, and you find its quirks appealing rather than trouble some. So as of writing this first part on April 17th. My latest piece of teaware acquired is Zhu Ni Yixing tea pot, which has been featured in this post.

But lets face it, I have a site The Hagi Project in which I mainly catalog my Hagi Yaki collection. So I would be lying if I said that my "favorite child" is not a piece of Hagi yaki. I hate to say that around my Yixing, or Lins Kettle, but the way Hagi change and feel. The fact that they seem to be border line alive.

The Hardest question is: Which Hagi piece is my favorite?

This is hard, as I really like Tebineri (pinch work) pieces, and Oni-hagi pieces. Oni-hagi is extra coarse clay, often with large noticeable, pieces of sand.

Tebineri pieces feel amazing in hand, and due to the pinch work nature, they tend to be a bit more unique and different than typical hand made pottery pieces. I know all hand made ceramics are unique, but the fact that masters artists can make hundreds of pieces that look rather similar, when using a pottery wheel. It seems when pinch work is done the piece is more organic in nature. While the pieces will look similar, when examining them with your hand you get to know and feel the soul of the piece.

I like Oni-hagi pieces for reasons that are much harder to explain. Sometimes Oni-hagi clay can cause interesting effects to occur in the glaze. That and the fact that it seems to make the piece more likely to leak/weep, makes the piece feel live.

That being said, what is my favorite piece of Hagi-yaki? From what I said it seems a pinch work Oni-hagi piece would be ideal, but I do not know if I have ever seen one of those, it seems that combination is just not done.

So my favorite piece of teaware is my Noutomi Choun Hohin. Though sadly it is the hardest to actually capture its true essence in a photograph. But it feels absolutely amazing in hand, to match. This piece also looks rather alien in its appearance.

Size and Shape is Key

So now that I've been acquiring more and more teaware, and other various ceramics, the more I notice certain pieces just tend to be used much more often than others. So I thought for quite a while on why I am always reaching for certain cups.

Favoritism:

We can admit it, we all have our favorites in just about everything, and though the definition of favorite implies that there is only one, I feel you can have multiple favorites, one from each of various styles and makes. So while this definitely plays a role, and is rather obvious, we still need to consider the other points.

Size and Shape:

I never realized how much size and shape really play as a role in how I pick out my teaware. Today I was having a session using a Gigantic cup, that left me borderline frustrated. While the cup does hold a large amount of liquid, the fact that it holds that much causes a very reduced cooling time, something which must be taken into consideration if you are cooling the water for the tea in the same cup you will be drinking from. But not only that the cup was so big I was having my normally rather large steeps, and it left the cup looking almost vacant. The cup was just Huge for the purpose for which I wanted to use it.

But while size is important with cooling, so is shape, I have a rather favorite Yunomi by Mukuhara Kashun which during cool weather I felt my self grabbing nearly every time I wanted to have Sencha. But now that it is warm because it is a Classic Yunomi shape instead of the Wan (bowl) type shape that I have much more of, it cools a lot slower. It lends credence to the idea of different shaped Chawans, and the standard summer Chawan appearance of incredibly wide at the top slopping in slowly to the center and bottom of the bowl.